Columbus County
Columbus County is home to Lake Waccamaw and its state park, which, along with the Lumber and Waccamaw rivers, make the county a regional destination for nature-loving types.
The lake's surface area of nearly 9,000 acres makes it the largest of the Carolina Bay lakes, and its ecosystem attracts rare and endangered plants and animals, including the Venus' flytrap and Waccamaw killifish, which lives only there. The county's Web site lists the Green Swamp as a "botanical wonder." The lake draws boaters, hikers, campers and folks who like to fish.
The county is also a good place for kayakers to pick up the 115-mile long Lumber River.
The county is named for Christopher Columbus and was founded in 1808 from parts of Bladen and Brunswick counties.
Chadbourn is home to the Strawberry Festival, the oldest agricultural festival in the state. In Tabor City, they celebrate the yam, and in Whiteville, the county seat, they toast the pecan.
The county has three train depot museums, in Chadbourn, Fair Bluff and Lake Waccamaw.
Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Tabor City, which is 16 miles from Myrtle Beach, S.C., was named in 2008 the top resort in the 71-park franchise.